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Picture of the Week: Elah Valley

(Post by Seth M. Rodriquez)

This week’s photo comes from Volume 4 of the revised and expanded edition of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands and is entitled “Elah Valley Aerial from West” (photo ID #: tb011606772). One of the improvements in the new edition of the collection is the addition of some aerial photos of the Elah Valley which make it easy to pick out the valley from among the hills of the Shephelah. In the photo above, the valley can be seen starting at the bottom left corner, moving diagonally up to the center. (Click on the photo for a higher resolution.)

This photo is extremely useful when discussing the encounter of David and Goliath. First Samuel 17 sets the stage in the following way:

Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle. And they were gathered at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered, and encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. (1 Sam. 17:1-3, ESV.)

Most of the locations in this passage are visible in this picture. To assist in identifying them, I’m going to pull from one of the PowerPoint presentations included in the Pictorial Library collection:

In this slide the location of the Elah Valley and Socoh are clearly marked, along with possible locations of Ephes-dammim. Azekah is not pictured here, but is located just off the photo to the left. You can easily imagine the Philistine army on one side of the valley and the Israelites on the other, just as it is described in verse 3.

In the background, the Judean Hills are marked which adds to the value of this photo. When teaching on David and Goliath, I like to point out to my listeners that there was much at stake for David in this battle. Not only were the Israelite soldiers facing a deadly enemy and not only was the reputation of Israel’s God on the line, but there was another element that we tend not to think about which relates to geography. If you look at a map of this area you will see that the Elah Valley is an entryway into the Hill Country of Judah, the region where David and his family lived. Three thousand years after the fact we have the advantage of knowing how it turned out, but if David had lost the battle it is possible that the Philistines would have penetrated into the Judean Hills (as they had when they were encamped at Michmash on the Central Benjamin Plateau). This would have put David’s family and neighbors at serious risk. So as David faced Goliath, he was not only fighting for his people and his God … he also was fighting for the safety of his own hometown.

This photo is included in Volume 4 of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands and can be purchased here.

Tagged Picture of the Week, Shephelah

Tayinat Colossal Statue

(Post by A.D. Riddle)

There have been a dozen or so online pieces in the last two days about the colossal statue found at Tel Tayinat this summer, but most of them repeat what can be found in the official news release (see the update added to the end of our first post).

A few new photos have appeared, and the Toronto Star describes the discovery of the statue by Darren Joblonkay, a student working on the dig this summer.

(photo by Jennifer Jackson)

Darren Joblonkay with statue fragment (photo from The Star).

In the lower photo, one can barely see that the back of the statue, from the shoulders down, has an uneven surface. This must be the “lengthy Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription” in raised relief. The article in the Toronto Star gives a few intriguing details about the content of the inscription. It belongs to the Neo-Hittite king Suppiluliuma (9th cent. B.C.) and describes his “taking land from eight neighbouring kingdoms, establishing a border, and building a monument to his father.” The photo shows another piece of monumental sculpture, a column base fragment depicting a winged bull. The other reports state that the column base also has a relief of a sphinx.

The low mound of Tell Tayinat in the Amuq Plain, Turkey.

(photo source)

UPDATE: The official announcement was also released at the website of the University of Toronto, including a link to a photo of the column base fragment.

(photo by Jennifer Jackson)

Tagged Discoveries, Turkey

Giveaway: Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus

This week we have two copies of the excellent Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus to give away, courtesy of Zondervan. I have already heaped effusive praise upon this book earlier in the year, and

I’ll quote just briefly from what we said then:

This book brims with insights. I love to learn new things about familiar and dear subjects, and again and again I found myself writing in the margin an exclamation mark or a reminder to return to that page.

Amazon has dozens of five-star reviews, many of which communicate the value of the book better than I have. The author, Lois Tverberg, also has a website with excerpts, articles, and a blog.

We have one drawing from which we will select two winners at random.

You may enter the drawing one time only. Email addresses will be used only to notify the winners. The contest ends on Friday.

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Tagged Giveaway, Resources

Alleged Samson Seal Discovered at Beth Shemesh

Some scholars are suggesting that the depiction on a seal found in the Sorek Valley shows the biblical hero Samson subduing a lion. From Haaretz:

A small stone seal found recently in the excavations of Tel Beit Shemesh could be the first archaeological evidence of the story of the biblical Samson.
The seal, measuring 1.5 centimeters, depicts a large animal next to a human figure. The seal was found in a level of excavation that dates to the 11th century B.C.E. That was prior to the establishment of the Judean kingdom and is considered to be the period of the biblical judges – including Samson. Scholars say the scene shown on the artifact recalls the story in Judges of Samson fighting a lion.
But excavation directors Prof. Shlomo Bunimovitz and Dr. Zvi Lederman of Tel Aviv University say they do not suggest that the human figure on the seal is the biblical Samson. Rather, the geographical proximity to the area where Samson lived, and the time period of the seal, show that a story was being told at the time of a hero who fought a lion, and that the story eventually found its way into the biblical text and onto the seal.

The story continues and explains some of the geographical connections. This discovery reminds me that while Samson’s life largely centers in the Sorek Valley, the most prominent city of that valley is never mentioned in the narrative (Judges 13-16). If the interpretation of this seal is correct, the people of Beth Shemesh remembered their local hero with some pride.

A high-resolution photo of the seal by Raz Lederman is available here.

HT: Joseph Lauer

Tagged Discoveries, Shephelah

Quotations from Scholars on the Record

Scholars on the Record is a collection of interviews that Hershel Shanks has conducted with archaeologists and biblical scholars over the last 30 years. I found it a fascinating read, though not one person interviewed shares my perspective that the Bible is a trustworthy source. I’ve selected a few quotations that provide insight on biblical studies, archaeology, and the way scholars think.

William Dever: “Originally I wrote to frustrate the biblical minimalists; then I became one of them, more or less” (19).

Bart Ehrman: “That’s what the Exodus event is, that’s what the crucifixion is: It’s a God who intervenes, and when I look around this world, I don’t see a God who intervenes” (24).

Hershel Shanks: “If I ever write a book on ‘How True Is the Bible?’ I’ll have to start out by saying that archaeology is not the way to find out; that it has very little to say” (57).

Israel Finkelstein: “Archaeology is relevant when somebody tells me that the patriarchal material in Genesis reflects the realities of the second millennium B.C. Then archaeology is in full steam to prove that he is wrong” (66).

Cyrus Gordon, explaining how they controlled for stratigraphy: “The Egyptian taskmasters were very good at implementing our instructions. They cracked whips. They used to beat the workers. I couldn’t imagine an American beating the workers, but the Egyptians did” (169).

Yigael Yadin: “I don’t think God has anything to do with archaeology” (194).

The book includes interviews with Elie Wiesel, Geza Vermes, David Noel Freedman, the Dothans, and others. I recommend it.

Tagged Resources

New Sculpture from Tell Tayinat (and the treaty tablet)

(Post by A.D. Riddle)

According to an online article at Hürriyet Daily News, excavations at Tell Tayinat unearthed the head of a large statue last month. The Tayinat Archaeological Project is directed by Timothy Harrison of the University of Toronto. The head is made of basalt with inlaid eyes, is about 5 feet tall (1.5 m) and weighs 1.5 tons. Some excerpts give a few details:

“It is a figure with a beard and long hair, and it seems to be holding a weapon…The rest of the sculpture has not been found, indicating that it may
well have been damaged. However, the upper part is in very good
condition…The sculpture has been sent to the Hatay Archeology Museum, where it
will be restored by a professional team…Harrison also showed that
there is writing that says ‘Suppiluliuma’ at the back of the sculpture.”

In related news, an Assyrian vassal treaty tablet was discovered at Tell Tayinat in 2009 (see here).

Two articles including the publication of the treaty tablet and a discussion of the archaeological context appear in the latest issue of Journal of Cuneiform Studies (pdf downloads available here).

Harrison, T.P. and Osborne J. F.
2012 “Building XVI and the Neo-Assyrian Sacred Precinct at Tell Tayinat.” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 64: 125-143.

Lauinger, J.
2012 “Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty at Tell Tayinat: Text and Commentary.” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 64: 87-123.

For a number of years (or rather, decades), Kenneth Kitchen has been working on collecting all Ancient Near Eastern treaties, covenants, and law codes. The culmination of this work now appears in print as:

Kitchen, Kenneth A. and Paul J. N. Lawrence.
2012 Treaty, Law and Covenant in the Ancient Near East. 3 parts. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

A detailed table of contents and introduction (pdf) can be downloaded at the publisher’s website. (I am counting on my library to get a copy, since I don’t have quite enough change in my pocket to cover the nearly €300 [= $370] price tag.) The introduction notes that this work includes 106 documents in 10 different languages. Parts 1 and 2 include the texts in transliteration and translation, with notes, indexes and color diagrams. Part 3 is a nearly 300 page commentary and synthesis of all this material. See here for a discussion of the significance of this study for the book of Deuteronomy in particular. (Deuteronomy and other biblical treaties and covenants are included in Treaty, Law and Covenant in the Ancient Near East, but the new Tayinat treaty tablet is not—it is probably too recent to have made it in.)

UPDATE (Jul 30, Mon): An official announcement concerning the new statue fragment was released this morning by the University of Toronto. It includes two more photos and states that the fragment was found underneath the paved surface of a monumental gateway leading to the Neo-Hittite citadel.

From the release:

The head and torso of the human figure, intact to just above its waist,
stands approximately 1.5 metres in height, suggesting a total body
length of 3.5 to four metres. The figure’s face is bearded, with
beautifully preserved inlaid eyes made of white and black stone, and its
hair has been coiffed in an elaborate series of curls aligned in linear
rows. Both arms are extended forward from the elbow, each with two arm
bracelets decorated with lion heads. The figure’s right hand holds a
spear, and in its left is a shaft of wheat. A crescent-shaped pectoral
adorns its chest. A lengthy Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription, carved in
raised relief across its back, records the campaigns and accomplishments
of Suppiluliuma, likely the same Patinean king who faced a Neo-Assyrian
onslaught of Shalmaneser III as part of a Syrian-Hittite coalition in
858 BC.

Tagged Discoveries, Resources, Turkey